If you picked the San Francisco Giants to return to the World Series this year, the odds might have been in your favor based on their last 5 years’ performance.
But who would have picked the Kansas City Royals?
Really?
With all of the fat contracts and top-heavy payrolls of other American League teams like the LA Angels and the NY Yankees, who would pick a mid-market, under-capitalized team who hasn’t been to the World Series in 29 years?
So how did the Royals do it?
And what can you discover from their success about how you and your team can succeed?
Here are three Royal strategies to build your team around today as you create a championship-winning, Work Positive team:
Be Humble
Remember: It’s not about you. It’s about you and the team.
Play your role on the team. Try to be “a person” not “the person,” and know that it’s enough.
Before the post-season, other than rabid Royal fans, who knew the names of the starting line-up players? Or the bullpen trio?
It’s amazing how much company sales increase and team productivity soars when you pay little attention to the accumulation of personal accolades and more to growing a championship-winning team.
Be humble. Be about the team.
Ask yourself as you Work Positive today, “Why am I doing what I’m doing? To be ‘a player’ on the team? Or, ‘the player’?”
Play for Mutual Benefit
Team is primary. There’s a Gestalt to team that defies understanding by those who bend inward to their ego, who insist on economic navel gazing—“I got mine. You get yours.”
The whole team really is greater than the sum of its parts. Sports writers talk about teams of destiny; teams that achieve greatness without the typically recognized player profiles.
An orientation to mutual benefit drives achievement beyond individual accomplishment. Kansas City made it to the World Series by playing “small ball,” i.e., with singles and stolen bases that depend on each player doing his part instead of the “sultan of swat” dominating the game with home runs.
Think of it this way in your work team: So what if you’re leading the company in sales if it still shows a significant loss each quarter?
Ask yourself as you Work Positive today, “How will my actions benefit the team? How will the company achieve its goals because of my unique contribution?”
Work the Golden Rule
Regard team members as highly as you do yourself.
In this day of celebrity-status, multimillion-dollar contract players sending signed baseballs with cell numbers to female fans during a game, it’s positively refreshing for an organization to clarify vision as “be a teammate.” You can’t buy that core value.
Brian Tracy says, “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.”
The Golden Rule works. Work the Golden Rule.
Ask yourself as you Work Positive today, “What golden help do I share with my teammates?”
Want to build a championship team that consistently wins at increasing sales with greater productivity and more time with family and friends?
Be a humble, mutual benefiting, Golden Rule-guided teammate as you Work Positive today.
About the Author
Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.
